China in the World Community Fund Report — 2022
Global Research Team / Doublethink Lab
Advancing global research and collaborations on PRC influence
In 2021, the China in the World (CITW) network, under Doublethink Lab (DTL), launched the beta version of the China Index, the first initiative to objectively codify the influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) wields around the world.
The first edition of the China Index provides a comparative view of PRC influence across 36 independent states and territories in nine domains: media, foreign policy, academia, domestic politics, economy, technology, society, military, and law enforcement. Future editions, which will include additional countries, will serve as a tool to measure how the PRC’s global influence waxes and wanes over time.
Both CITW and the Index aim to enhance global understanding and awareness of PRC-related issues, particularly among academics, media, policymakers, and advocacy networks. With this goal in mind, CITW in 2021 launched its first Community Fund, inviting proposals that leverage results from the China Index to develop related projects or activities, while promoting collaboration between stakeholders.
Four proposals were selected and funding support was allocated for work undertaken in January to June 2022. The following article shares details of the grantees and their work involving the China Index, with an eye to inspiring further collaborative projects. Three of the projects published their work in the local language (Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish) to better facilitate knowledge-sharing with local stakeholders. Civic IDEA is the exception, publishing in English to reach as wide an audience as possible across Central Asia. All the grantees fulfilled the objectives set out in their proposals, details of which we share below:
1. Economic Democracy Union
Taiwan-based Economic Democracy Union (EDU), founded in 2014, is dedicated to resisting Chinese political and commercial influences while safeguarding the democratic governance, sovereignty, and economic independence of Taiwan. With the support of the CITW Community Fund, EDU was able to document and publish on its website seven cases of how Chinese capital and other influences threaten Taiwan, demonstrating the impacts of these cases to the general public. EDU’s experience traces how Chinese capital influences major companies and platforms, including Singapore-based eCommerce company Shopee, Hong Kong-based travel platform Klook, as well as several major Taiwanese companies, including the bank CTBC.
Furthermore, EDU in late July held a closed-door online event sharing experiences and insights on how fellow CSOs can identify the role of Chinese capital and other PRC influences in their geographies; how the PRC is shifting its springboard for disguised overseas capital deployment from Hong Kong to Singapore; and how CSOs can work to engage policymakers to address related challenges. The event was one of several panels EDU hosted to raise awareness of its work, which reached more than 6,000 people across the events and social media.
2. Civic IDEA
Civic IDEA is a Georgian think tank established in 2017 to analyze and monitor foreign influence operations, principally those of Russia and the PRC, in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Civic IDEA is a China Index regional partner, and as such has a deep working knowledge of how the index can be used to study the PRC’s influence across different geographies and domains.
Civic IDEA subsequently launched several publications, including “From Caspian to Black Sea: Economic, Academic and Digital Threats posed by the PRC”, a collection of articles by Civic IDEA, its partners, and distinguished regional experts that analyze and debate PRC activities in their respective countries in various fields, including economics, academia, business, and politics.
Moreover, Civic IDEA drew inspiration from the China Index and DTL’s wider work to publish a deep-dives into how Russia sought support among Central Asian countries for its narratives attempting to justify the invasion of Ukraine (“Can Russia Find More Friends and Support for Its War in Ukraine?”), as well as the tactical and strategic narratives emanating from Beijing around its outwardly neutral yet effectively pro-Russian positioning on Ukraine (“The PRC’s Twofold Game in the Russian-Ukrainian War”).
Civic IDEA also presented the index and related work at its International China Conference on July 5–6th to over 60 organizations, and intends to do the same at its summer school, which will host about 100 participants. In the future, the think tank will continue its scrutiny of China and its activities in Georgia and Armenia, while surmounting its primary challenge: the dearth of information on PRC influence operations in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, and a lack of interest in reporting or cooperating on these issues from media and academia.
3. Data Privacy Brasil Research Association
Data Privacy Brasil Research Association (DPBR) is a non-profit civil entity based in São Paulo dedicated to the interface between the protection of personal data, technology and fundamental rights, producing research and advocacy for the justice system, legislative bodies and government.
Supported by the CITW Fund, DPBR published a paper exploring Chinese influence in the regulation of digital markets and the export of technological regulatory standards. The objective was to investigate the main characteristics of strategies and regulatory standards designed in China, and the possible direct and indirect influence of these processes in peripheral countries such as Brazil.
The research comprised five elements: i) analysis of data on international trade and foreign investment flows between Brazil and China, looking primarily at ICT and digital trade sectors; ii) tracing technology and society laws and bills in both China and Brazil; iii) exploratory interviews with technology experts; iv) mapping public data showing the flow of public officials and congressmen between Brazil and China in the last 5 years, seeking to capture possible influences of Chinese regulators on technology initiatives in Brazil; and v) researching prominent media articles published in the last 5 years to map public debate, identify manifestations of public and private agents, and track the development of related policies.
Key takeaways include that Huawei’s consolidated presence in Brazil and its deep-rooted participation in the national telecoms infrastructure has had a direct bearing on the adoption of 5G technical standards that are dependent on the PRC, and are supported by Brazilian telecoms firms. Moreover, the research demonstrated that the PRC exerts influence in Brazil across a variety of China Index domains concurrently, in this case “economy” , “technology” and “foreign policy”.
DPBR then led a workshop with specialists from the Americas (Brazil, Colombia and the USA) to discuss the question: “Is it already possible to see China as an exporter of legal and regulatory models, in competition with the US and Europe?” The research led to DPBR striking a number of enduring relationships with the other workshop participants, including with fellow China Index regional partner, the Colombia-based Fundación Andrés Bello.
4. Instituto Desafíos de la Democracia (IDD)
Instituto Desafíos de la Democracia (IDD), a Chile-based policy think tank, used the release of the China Index as a springboard to promote issues related to PRC influence in Chile and the wider region. IDD partnered with a consultant to bring the Index results to the attention of as wide an audience as possible — securing publications in six media outlets — and published a comprehensive press release highlighting some of the index’s most salient points, as well as a radar chart visualization of PRC influence in Chile across the nine domains.
The press release and China Index featured in a feature on the Chilean TV channel Mega Noticias, on local radio, as well as major digital media El Mostrador. A related printed op-ed, penned by IDD director Juan Cristobal Portales and Sascha Hannig, was published in El Mercurio, one of the main newspapers in Chile — a high impact outcome as the print edition has a reach of around 30,000 households, plus digital subscriptions. All told, the index featured in media coverage across print, online and broadcast media, with the latter including an interview with CNN Chile.
Buoyed by the media coverage, IDD was able to present China Index findings to Chilean parliamentary members in private networks for comment and review. Moreover, IDD has secured a network of media partners with which they can continue to cooperate on further research and China-related investigations. Looking ahead, IDD will focus on researching PRC and other authoritarian influences on social media, and will similarly seek to share the findings with members of Congress.
About Doublethink Lab
Doublethink Lab (Doublethink) is a civil society organization (CSO) devoted to studying the malign influence of digital authoritarianism. Doublethink’s strengths lie in the ability to combine a diverse set of research approaches in the social, behavioral, and computational sciences to study state-funded propaganda campaigns, psychological warfare, and related information operations. Doublethink seeks to foster global networks connecting academics, democracy movements, digital communities, like-minded CSOs, and experts on the People’s Republic of China, in order to strengthen global democratic resilience.
About China In The World (CITW)
In 2019, Doublethink Lab and its partners established China In The World (CITW) network to bring together stakeholders researching the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s global influence and disinformation strategies. CITW oversees the publication of the China Index, the first cross-regional initiative to objectively measure and compare the PRC’s influence in various countries. CITW Summits are participatory grassroots events designed to strengthen members’ ability to conduct investigations and research that strengthen democratic resilience and counter malign authoritarian influences.
